Elaine Martone Music and Festival Producer I Label Executive
Photo: Richard Shotwell / Invision/AP Elaine Martone poses in the press room with the award for classical producer of the year during the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles.
Elaine Martone won 2025 Producer of the Year, Classical, at the 67th annual Grammy® Awards. Martone was honored for her work on several albums, including “Bartók: String Quartet No.3; Suite From ‘The Miraculous Mandarin‘” with Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra; “The Book of Spells” with the Merian Ensemble; “Divine Mischief” with Julian Bliss, J. Eric Wilson & Baylor University Wind Ensemble; “Joy!” with John Morris Russell & Cincinnati Pops; “Schubert: The Complete Impromptus” with Gerardo Teissonnière; “Stranger At Home” with Shachar Israel; and three other works with Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra. Among the nine works included in Martone’s recognition this year are four recordings with The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. “I’m very proud of those recordings, and I love working with the Cleveland Orchestra,” she said.
The amazing Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst perform Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin
Martone's dream was to play in the Cleveland Orchestra. "I wanted to be an orchestral musician (I played oboe), and I was not good enough in many, many ways," she adds.
Martone was the Festival Producer for the world-renowned Ojai Music Festival, one of the most exciting and creative music festivals in the field, from 2012 to 2019 . She was also Lab Director for the innovative Blackbird Creative Lab from 2016-2018. Her credits include: Executive Producer for Spring for Music, an orchestral music festival produced at Carnegie Hall with founding directors Thomas W. Morris, David V. Foster and Mary Lou Falcone, music industry legends. The festival took place during one week each May from 2011 through 2014 at the iconic hall, with orchestras invited to perform based on their innovative programming.
In her 29 years at Telarc as Executive Vice President of Production, Elaine Martone built the finest audio production team in the industry. Elaine has served as producer on award-winning recordings of both classical and jazz genres, including those by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Robert Spano, Donald Runnicles, Yoel Levi, and Robert Shaw, The Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst, the Philharmonia Orchestra with Benjamin Zander, Empire Brass Quintet, classical guitarist David Russell, and jazz greats Geri Allen, Ray Brown, Ann Hampton Callaway, Michel Camilo, Oscar Peterson, Tierney Sutton, and McCoy Tyner to name a few. Together with her husband, Robert Woods, Elaine has formed a music enterprise, Sonarc Music and is pursuing her passion, producing great music and musicians, as well as working with talented young people in a wide variety of musical styles.
Martone (below photo) at home with her husband Robert Woods (co-founder of Telarc). She has now won six Grammys out of 13 career nominations. She also previously won a Latin Grammy® Award.
Enjoy this exclusive studioexpresso interview with Elaine Martone.
Photo: Vicotria Girvan
SE: Producing music is your deepest love. you describe recordings as musical “photographs". Talk about your process - How do projects find you or you find projects?
EM: What I mean by a musical photograph is that as a producer, I capture a moment in time. It’s just that—- it is the artist grappling with that work by that composer at the time of the recording. So it will not represent EVERYTHING, just the moment we captured it. I think that makes what we are doing less precious, and more heartfelt— it doesn’t have to be perfect to be good or even great. But it does have to be authentic. Projects generally find me. An artist comes to me with an idea. I am good at bringing their idea into the world. I'm not as good at coming up with that idea. I like to say I am someone who goes from small to large. Creative people are big-idea people. They need a producer who can get down to the details and execute those details. I’m that person. It is a great privilege to be with someone while they create.
SE: You delivered a large body of work in 2024 — Many have recorded Béla Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin (the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic). What are some things you wanted to do differently for your recording with The Cleveland?
EM: Oh that’s a great question! I think that Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin in the hands of Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra so perfectly captures the spirit and craziness of the work. I told Franz it was his second party piece (Strauss’s Rosenkavlier Suite we did the year before being his first party piece in my view). He and the Orchestra play both with such flair, wit, grace and poignancy.
SE: Introduce your engineer (s) for your 2024 projects and any life-long partnerships you want to mention.
EM: I have had the supreme good fortune to work with some of the finest recording engineers. During my tenure at Telarc Records (1980-2009 when the company was sold) we had a “stable” of fantastic engineers, trained in the style of recording we favored. What a blast! I loved working with the Michael Bishop and Jack Renner (co-founder of Telarc), both now passed. In the 1980s, Michael and I formed the “B team” to Jack and Bob Woods (other co-founder of Telarc and my husband's) “A team”. Michael and I were in sync on what we felt made a great sounding recording. And Robert Friedrich, who was also part of our Telarc family, was another great engineer there. I still have the pleasure of working with Robert (on “The Book of Spells” with the Merian Ensemble), whom I call the godfather of sound. I also have the real honor of working with Gintas Norvila in my role as Audio Producer for The Cleveland Orchestra and on other projects as well. He’s the prince of audio! Engineers are the ones who make my life easier and because of them my work and the work of the artists get properly captured. I could not do the work I do without them. Ben Maas, Daniel Shore and Bill Maylone engineered for me in 2024 as well. Their outstanding work is heard on the recordings I produced as part of my 2024 Grammy submissions.
SE: I understand you're a musician (played oboe) and stay in shape with competitive ballroom dancing. Your favorite dance and dancers? EM: Favorite dance that I can do: Viennese Waltz; dance inspirations: Misty Copeland, Gene Kelly, Derek Hough SE: We met when you were producing the Ojai Festival....How's that work different and similar from recording albums?
EM: OOOOOOOHHHHH another great question— producing the Ojai Music Festival was like producing 40 recordings all at once—- so many moving parts!!! Producing one recording at a time is infinitely easier: I have one thing to think about!
SE: You have a long history with Telarc and now Sonarc Music (tell us about Sonarc).
EM: Telarc was where I learned my craft; Sonarc (son of Telarc) is the company my husband, Bob, and I started after the demise of Telarc, so that we could continue our recording work, but also include other areas of production. Bob was a fantastic producer, and has 13 Grammy Awards. He went on to do audio preservation work for The Cleveland Orchestra, and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, on behalf of Sonarc Music.
SE: What can you say to artists who have their own label? Best advise?
EM: Tough one—- it’s a hard road, having a label, but also allows you much more creative freedom. BUT do you want to be in the record business or the musician/artist business? The two are very different. I advise artists to be artists.
SE: What are the basic skillsets that make your job easy?
EM: I’m super organized and I love people. I like the interesting, sometimes wacky artistic personality. I like having fun. I like making a difference. All of these skills go into producing.
SE: Thanks for sharing the photo - now we can see where you keep your awards!
EM: On the mantle mostly. One is upstairs in my office (makes a good Zoom call background) and one of my husband’s we can’t find. He has 13, I have 7!
SE: Your favorite libation?
EM: Mezcal
SE: Best advise you give and best advise you've received
EM: Best advice I give: Listen for opportunities then open your mouth and ask for what you want.Best advice received: would have to be from Tom Morris who told me to pull for information from people not to push for it. Second best advice I received: it doesn’t matter how it feels when you perform, it’s about what you are communicating “out there”
SE: Favorite venue or studio to record?
EM: My favorite concert hall is the Musikverein in Vienna, followed by the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Symphony Hall in Boston and Severance Hall in Cleveland. Studios—- I loved the old Avatar in NYC, and Abbey Road in London, and Capitol in LA
SE: You've talked about "the invisible space or place" in your recordings and how it affects the audience experience. What goes in your production to maximize the audience experience?
EM: I like to capture the sound of the orchestra, or chamber ensemble or solo artist in the space of the hall. If the hall or studio is inferior, then I have to manufacture a good sound… that’s hard. The hall or studio is the secret sauce. A great sounding space is key to great recordings.
SE: Have you recorded in Atmos or surround sound?
EM: Yes, we do it all the time! One of my Grammys is for producing the Best Surround Sound Album on the John Adams work “On the Transmigration of Souls” with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus… I won that award with Michael Bishop, engineering, in 2010.
